Forbidden Blood (Vampire Venators Romance Series)

by Heaton, Felicity

  The kiss had been fantastic but if the man hadn’t disturbed them would it have come with a high price? Would Kearn have bitten her? Drained her dry?

  She felt as though she had flicked the latch on Pandora’s Box and flung the lid open without considering the consequences.

  “Where do you live?”

  Amber blinked her heavy thoughts away. The hard set of Kearn’s eyes couldn’t hide the feelings in them this time.

  He didn’t want to ask that question.

  Something inside her said that there was a more important one that he couldn’t voice. She felt different again, as she had the night she had tasted the vampire’s blood, only this time she felt out of place and unsatisfied. And worried.

  There was an underlying sense of struggle and conflict too, and those were both of the feelings in Kearn’s eyes.

  She could feel him.

  She almost laughed at herself but there was no other explanation. Somehow, she could feel him.

  Was the conflict really about his desire for her blood or something else? Now that the moment had passed, she felt it was about something else, and she knew what it was. It was only natural for him to think it. After all, she had been afraid of the vampire who had attacked her.

  Amber directed him to her flat, never taking her eyes off him. She tried to pick out the emotions that didn’t feel as though they were hers. Whenever she had almost figured one out, it winked out of existence. They disappeared at the same rate as they did in Kearn’s eyes, until she felt normal again and his eyes were empty.

  He pulled the car to a halt outside her dull brick apartment building in the suburbs of London. His car couldn’t have been more out of place surrounded by the hatchbacks, estates, and occasional four-wheel drive vehicles in the parking lot. None of them cost anywhere near half that of Kearn’s two-seater sports car.

  Amber stepped out of the car, resisting the temptation to say that it was a safe neighbourhood and his car would be alright. She didn’t need to explain her life to him or apologise for the way she lived it.

  Kearn’s gaze scanned over the uniform rows of small windows on her four-storey building. It wasn’t as impressive as his, but it was how normal people lived in London. He didn’t say anything so she led the way to her flat. It was only when they reached her door that she remembered she didn’t have any keys.

  “The super has a spare set of my keys. There’s a chance he might still be awake. Wait here. I’ll go see,” she said but Kearn shook his head.

  She expected him to tell her to remain in the hall while he went to the super for her, but he stepped past her and waved his hand over the locks on her door instead. Each clicked. She couldn’t believe her eyes when he turned the handle and her front door swung open.

  Amber thanked him with a quick smile, trying to grasp what he had just done.

  He could open things with just a wave of his hand. Hey presto! That would be a useful ability when breaking and entering to drink people as they slept soundly in their beds. Could vampires just walk in uninvited?

  Her nerves got the better of her and her brain engaged babble mode.

  “Do I have to invite you over the threshold?” she said with a giggle that came out sounding more like a hiccup.

  “Your blood is invite enough… not just to your home.” Kearn looked so serious that her heart leapt into her throat. She swallowed it back down.

  Just what sort of things had she invited him to do? The light bulb in her head pinged on. She could catch a hint of his feelings. Did it work both ways? Could he control her as the other vampire had? The implications of what just a drop of blood could do suddenly seemed infinite.

  She pushed the growing list in her head away and stepped into her apartment.

  Kearn didn’t follow.

  He stood in the cream hall. The serious edge to his eyes hadn’t gone anywhere.

  She walked back to him, feeling that he wanted to say something. She felt conflicted again, and anxious.

  “Do you fear me now?” He glanced away from her, casting his eyes downwards at the wooden floor in the corridor. “You may remain here if you prefer it.”

  He took a step back. She countered it with one towards him.

  “No.”

  He stared at her, eyes empty and betraying none of the feelings inside her. He needed more than just that one word. He needed to hear her say it.

  “You don’t scare me,” she said.

  He didn’t look as though he believed her. She wished he would because it was the truth. The fact that he was a vampire didn’t frighten her, not as she had expected it would. He didn’t feel dangerous to her. Being around him was exciting. Even when she saw his fangs and his eyes, he was still the same man to her. He was Kearn—the only thing that felt real in this strange fantasy world and the man who wanted to protect her from the bad guy.

  He was her hero.

  “We’re partners, remember? We need to catch that man, and until we do, the only place I’ll feel safe is with you.” Her feelings lightened but Kearn’s expression didn’t.

  “You are probably safer away from me,” he said and then added in a whisper, “I cannot stop thinking about your blood.”

  Her heart missed a beat. His gaze darted to her chest. Of course he would hear it. It wasn’t fear but strange excitement that had made it skip. Did he know that?

  Amber held her hand out to him.

  “Come in.” She was glad her hand didn’t tremble like the rest of her. “I’m sorry for what I did. I hadn’t expected that sort of reaction.”

  He placed his hand into hers. “I apologise too for acting the way I did.”

  Amber didn’t say anything. There was no need for him to apologise. The kiss had been amazing and she was glad that it had happened. Some small part of her clung to the hope that her blood wasn’t the only reason he had kissed her. She wanted him to be attracted to her too.

  His hand left hers the moment he crossed the threshold of her small flat and she closed the door. Kearn walked along the purple hall to the open door at the end and looked around her living room. There wasn’t much to see. Now that she had been in his place, hers looked tiny. She could probably fit her whole apartment into just his bedroom.

  She felt like apologising again so she turned right down the hall and went into her bedroom. She gathered clothes that would make her pretty but not like a slut, and then picked up her old gym bag and dumped it down on her double bed. The bag smelt a bit. A spray with perfume fixed that and she crammed her clothes in, tossing in some toiletries on top. Her whole life fit into a small bag. There was something sad about that.

  She looked around her bedroom at her belongings, her gaze skipping over the stack of French books on her mahogany dresser, and realised that she didn’t have that much to pack for her move after all.

  Other than the photos of her brother at his Paris apartment and her parents at their villa in southern France that decorated her dresser and mocked her chilly British life with their warm smiles, there was nothing else she would take with her even if she were never coming back.

  Amber stared at the French books next to the framed photographs, feeling none of the excitement she had before when looking at them. She felt less certain about her trip now, and it wasn’t just because she knew that vampires existed and were likely to be in Paris too.

  Her gaze strayed to the door that led back to the hallway and Kearn.

  There was already a part of her that didn’t want to leave him, and she knew that with every hour, let alone day, that she spent with him, that part of her would grow.

  Moving to a new country didn’t seem anywhere near as exciting as the past few hours she had spent with Kearn.

  She picked up her bag, sighed, and walked back along the hall to him. He looked positively bored but his green eyes warmed when he turned to face her. She stared into them, remembering how red they had been and how sharp his fangs had looked.

  She stopped just short of him, held her bag in b
oth hands in front of her, and hesitated. He would be angry if she asked him, but she had to know.

  “Do you bite people? Is that what you had for breakfast?”

  He frowned. “No. I do not bite people.”

  Amber dropped her gaze and bit her lip, feeling her cheeks burn. At least he didn’t look bored now. He looked mortally offended.

  Finding her courage, she raised her eyes to his.

  “What… what would happen… if you did bite someone?” It started out as a whisper but she was close to normal volume by the time she added, “Would they die?”

  “No.” His green eyes lost their hardness. “You would not die.”

  Her blush deepened. Was she that obvious?

  “You would become like me.”

  “Just from a bite… no swapping blood. I would die and change just like that?”

  “A single bite is all it takes to infect you. You would not die. Over a period of two years or less, you would gradually change until your thirst awakened.” His expression turned serious again and his gaze fell to her throat. “It would not even take a bite. A scratch from my fangs would be enough.”

  The edges of his irises burned red and then faded to green when he looked away.

  He wanted to bite her. She touched her neck and then dropped her hand before he noticed. He didn’t need her drawing attention to it if he was struggling against a desire to drink her blood.

  “Is it the same for all vampires?”

  “No. Only those bitten by a vampire of the noble houses can do such a thing. A vampire born to parents of a pure bloodline.”

  “Like you?”

  “Like me.”

  And Kyran. And she suspected those friends of Kyran’s were probably vampires too. No wonder Kyran knew Earl Huntingdon. They were both vampires of noble blood. If she had kept reading the book, would she have found Kearn’s name in there and that of his brother?

  “How do other vampires… if that man bites me—”

  “I will not allow that,” Kearn interjected.

  “But what if it did happen?” She had to know what she was up against and what might happen to her. She had always faced things and this time wasn’t going to be any different.

  “If he is like me, you would become like us.” Something akin to concern shone in his green eyes.

  “If he isn’t?”

  “You will die.”

  Three words that fell like lead on her chest. She would rather become a vampire than die.

  “Why?” Her voice trembled.

  “Because I doubt he would give you his blood to complete the process of a Commoner.” Kearn walked to her and took her bag. The silver strands of his hair partially obscured his eyes as he frowned. “Something tells me that the man we seek is not of common blood though.”

  “That isn’t comforting in the slightest, and it isn’t the whole truth either is it?” Her bravery almost faltered. She had felt the lie in his words.

  He shook his head.

  “So stop telling me the bedtime story version.” She tilted her chin up and straightened, denying her creeping fear. “What would they do to me?”

  “Bleed you… without biting you.”

  “Kill me? For my blood?” A chill chased down her spine and arms. She could see herself tied up and slowly bleeding to death in front of that vampire while he grinned at her.

  “No. Killing you would mean an end to the supply. They would sooner turn you, risking your blood gradually losing its effects with each day you progressed in your transition, than kill you. At least then they would have a year or two in which to harvest your blood.” He paused and frowned, his expression turning troubled, and she sensed he didn’t want to say anything else on the matter. She gave him a look that demanded he tell her and he sighed. “They would not kill you or turn you, Amber. They would take enough blood to keep you alive and weak, and under their control. I have seen it done. Whenever you recovered, they would take your blood again, harvesting it.”

  Amber gasped and shook her head. Tears blurred her vision. They were going to torture her by keeping her on the edge of death. If that man gave her blood again, she would do as he commanded—eating, drinking, restoring her blood so he could drain her again.

  Her knees gave way but Kearn caught her arm, supporting her with one hand.

  “It will not happen to you, Amber.” There was a promise in his eyes. The terrifying vision of the man using her as a slave drifted away as she looked into them. “I will keep you safe.”

  Amber nodded and held on to his arm until her legs felt strong again. Her eyes didn’t leave his. She drank her fill of the emotions in them. She could see beyond the barrier, down into his heart. She had opened it and she didn’t want it to close again, even when she knew it would.

  “So we’re partners?” she whispered up at him.

  A sense of sorrow and emptiness filled her and it was there in his eyes too. Loneliness.

  He nodded and then turned away.

  “Partners.”

  CHAPTER 8

  Kearn’s phone rang in his pocket when they were halfway to his car. He pulled the black mobile out and glanced at the display as he brought it to his ear. His brother.

  “Where have you been?” Kyran’s voice crackled. The reception was poor. “I have been trying to call you since you left the club.”

  “What is it?” He handed the bag to Amber and pulled his car keys from his trouser pocket.

  “Your boy and his entourage were here.”

  Kearn paused with his finger on the button that would unlock his car.

  “He was there?” He looked at Amber. Her eyes silently asked him what was happening.

  “It might have been him. It was difficult to tell. I did not see his face but he was definitely a vampire, a Noble no less, and he stopped at the spot where I had found Amber and spoke to the bartender.” Kyran sounded clearer now. Kearn unlocked his car and hurried to it.

  “What did he say?”

  Amber’s eyes were still on him, burning into his back with their question. Her heart beat fast, calling to the blood in his veins. She was frightened but resolved. He was glad she had found the strength to come with him, although he wasn’t convinced that she trusted him.

  He had scared her. She could deny it but she couldn’t hide such a thing from a vampire. His senses were tuned to fear above all over emotions. Blood tasted even sweeter when they were frightened.

  Kearn got into the car and started the engine. Amber sat in the passenger seat, her bag on her lap, and struggled to buckle the seatbelt. Kearn didn’t bother with his.

  “I did not hear him, but Marshall did. The man asked about the woman who had been sitting there. He held the glass out to the bartender and threatened him. The bartender said she had left alone.”

  Damn.

  “How long ago?”

  “Fifteen minutes, not more. Marshall followed them to the corner of Wardour, heading down from Oxford Street. They are on foot.”

  “Thank you.” Kearn closed the phone.

  He knew where they were going.

  A Noble. He wished it wasn’t true. Noble blood was strong. How much had the man given Amber? There was a chance it wouldn’t have left her system yet and the man had only been biding his time.

  Kearn’s gaze slid to Amber. Her eyes were glassy, fixed ahead, and it didn’t surprise him when she spoke.

  “Come to me, Lover,” she whispered, distant and hollow. “Let me taste you like you let that damned Venator.”

  Lover?

  Kearn growled.

  Over his dead body.

  He gunned the engine and sped through the streets of London suburbia, heading back into the centre of the city. He knew exactly where to find the vampire.

  His heart beat harder, quicker, almost human in its speed. Amber’s continued to race and her eyes didn’t leave the road. She wasn’t with him. She was miles away, with that bastard.

  He had to calm down. Amber was supposed to be bai
t for the man, not bait for him, but the man was using Amber to lure them to him. Kearn wasn’t sure what he was going to do once he got there. There had been three of them when he had saved Amber, but the warehouse had given him the impression that more were involved. He should have asked Kyran how many had been in the vampire’s entourage and asked him to tell the Venator where to meet him.

  One on one with a Noble, he would be able to cope without a problem. If there was more than one Noble, it was going to be difficult, or impossible if they had recently fed on forbidden blood.

  And he didn’t have his gun.

  This was a stupid and dangerous move, but he had to make it.

  “Ahead.” Amber pointed. “Almost there.”

  The old redbrick factory building stood before him. What was the vampire playing at? Did he want Amber’s blood so much that he was going to attempt to take her from him?

  It seemed both he and the vampire were willing to take great risks to get what they wanted.

  He pulled the car to a halt in the side road and turned off the engine and the lights.

  “Stay close to me.” He touched Amber’s hands where they clutched the bag.

  Amber looked at him at last. Her hazel eyes were still dull and empty.

  Kearn hated seeing her under the control of the vampire, and he hated himself for allowing it. He wanted to use the connection between their blood to free her but he needed her to lead him to the man.

  She stepped out of the car, placed her bag in the foot-well, and walked away. Kearn got out, closed his door and then the passenger side one, and locked the car. He followed her around to the front of the empty factory. His fingers twitched. Cold blue light crept over the marks, seeping along his fingers until they glowed, and then started over his hand. He shook it away, not wanting to waste his strength. He had to wait until he had the man in his sights. He couldn’t risk draining himself, not when he didn’t have his gun with him.

  Amber pushed the gates open and continued. He let her remain a few paces ahead of him. She walked into the empty dimly lit building and through it, moving slowly across the bare concrete floor as though she was sleepwalking. In effect she was. The vampire had control of her body and she could only obey him. Kearn could end her living nightmare for her, could free her. He didn’t want her to go near the vampire again.